LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors has directed county health department staff to look further into several potential tobacco sales and use restrictions targeted at reducing smoking rates in the county.
At the board’s meeting on Tuesday, top county health and tobacco education officials presented data on Lake County’s smoking rates—which are some of the highest in the state—and made recommendations on how to reduce those rates, especially among youth.
Lake County Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace noted that Lake County’s adult smoking rate was 27 percent in 2017, according to data from local health nonprofit Hope Rising. More recent data from the same source, dating up to 2018, shows that rate has decreased slightly to 25.3 percent.
Nearly 33 percent of adults in Lake County aged 45-64 smoke, compared with fewer than 14 percent above age 64, Hope Rising data shows. Younger adults between 24 and 44 have a 31 percent smoking rate.
Pace noted that a high smoking rate “correlates with cancer,” and that Lake County has cancer rates, including lung cancer specifically, which are “significantly higher than the state average.”
The rise of vaping as a means of ingesting nicotine has led to higher smoking rates in Lake County, Pace suggested.
The smoking rate among adults in Lake County hit a low point of 25 percent in 2015-2016, then went up to 27 percent the next year, according to Hope Rising data. Pace noted this had happened “right when the e-cigarettes and the vaping was introduced.
Lake County Tobacco Education Program Coordinator Gina Lyle-Griffin said Lake County is well above the rest of California in smoking rates.
“There were three other counties that were at 20 percent,” she said. Then it “drops down to maybe 15 (percent)…We are literally the highest, and we do have very high cancer rates,” she added.
Lake County’s youth are also more likely to smoke compared to the state average. Pace noted Hope Rising data that notes 14 percent of teens smoke across California, but 23 percent smoke in Lake County.
In a 2018 “sting” operation to determine whether local tobacco retailers were selling illegally to people under 18 (the statewide smoking age is 21), six out of six stores tested sold to minors, said Pace.
The Lake County Tobacco Education Program which Lyle-Griffin oversees, and which is a part of the California Tobacco Control Program—a longstanding state-run anti-tobacco initiative—hopes to find ways to reduce these and similar trends in smoking locally.
Asking for direction on how to direct the LCTEP, Pace and Lyle-Griffin, along with Lake County Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy, offered the board of supervisors four options to the board of supervisors.
First was a flavored tobacco product ban aimed at reducing child tobacco use.
Second was a ban on the sale of vaping products in stores that allow people under 21 to enter.
Third was a stricter regulation on smoking in public spaces.
Fourth was a Tobacco Retail Licensing program that would make tobacco stores pay annually to hold a license to sell tobacco products, and be subject to random “stings” and other requirements.
Recently, the City of Clearlake adopted versions of the third and fourth of these options. The city’s public smoking limitations have now been extended to include places like movie lines, bus stops, the vicinity of public parks, and anywhere with in 25 feet of a business. The city’s TRL asks for more than $200 per year from tobacco retailers to hold a license.
The board of supervisors instructed the health officials to bring back more information for further discussions on all four of the options presented, but some supervisors appeared wary of taking a misstep with more restrictions on tobacco.
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown expressed skepticism about the efficacy of not just tobacco sales regulations, but of California’s tobacco education programs in general.
“Any state-run program that relies upon the sale of something in order to maintain its bureaucratic monster is not really serious about eliminating that program,” Brown said. “This is a classic example,” he added, referring to the CTCP.
Pomeroy noted in response that it had been years since the state had funded Lake County’s local tobacco enforcement.
“All the state money went away,” said Pomeroy. “So our tobacco program and the health department is not allowed to use those funds for (enforcement).”
Brown called for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to be included in future tobacco regulation discussions, noting that enforcement efforts could be led by that department.
“It’s unacceptable that we’re seeing businesses that are selling to underage (kids) and nothing’s happening to them,” said District 4 Supervisor Tina Scott. “I would be in favor of looking at ways…to be able to go in and enforce.”
District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon said he would “definitely like to see” the health officer’s four proposed options “moving forward, at least for discussion purposes.” But he warned against creating bans that would limit local businesses from making revenue.
“For us to think up here that we can make rules to limit people’s opportunities to run businesses—I totally disagree with that. Completely. It’s not the way the government should be working.”
